Food Safety

Everyone wants the food they feed themselves and their families to be safe. But it seems like almost every day we hear about another food scare: meat contaminated with e. coli, peanut butter and chicken carrying salmonella, listeria in cantaloupe and other food-borne illnesses. Notably, all of these incidents have occurred in the industrialized Big Ag food system, not in the local food system.

The same industrialized practices that have led to so many foodborne illnesses also pose long-term threats to people’s health. Mass-production of confined animals, processing in large slaughterhouses, artificial growth hormones, the over-use of antibiotics, and questionable technologies such as genetic engineering that have not been studied for long-term impacts, could have serious consequences for our health and environment.

In contrast, the local food system addresses both short-term and long-term food safety issues. Almost no foodborne illness outbreaks have been attributed to foods produced and sold locally. While the scale of these markets are still small, the traceability is excellent, which stands in stark contrast to the industrial-scale system with its complex multinational sourcing and distribution chains. In addition, buying local improves food safety by providing the opportunity for consumers to know their farmers and to choose products based on that relationship and the factors that matter to them.

Food Safety in the News:

A public health faculty member and expert in health risk communication explains why, despite its risks, his family regularly eats raw cookie dough. And he says, cautionary statements about specific foods by agencies like the FDA are often “value statements,” not “scientific statements.” Read More.